The Doom that came to Karrnath

Acid rain and lightning hammers

15

NOV/14

As the party rested for the night, acidic rain set in, dripped through the roof of the barn the party took shelter in, and created small smoking puddles on the floor. Huddled together, the party tried to squeeze into a spot that would not be dripped on. Fargen was quite worried about his carefully groomed beard, but it survived the night.

In the morning, Logan prayed to the Silver Flame, and created a protective dome from a Shield of Faith spell that held off the acidic rain. The party used the opportunity to head back to the field, where they found that the skeletons, which had been revived and set as guardians again, had been half-dissolved by the rain. Without an enemy in sight, Logan quickly divined the spot where they book was buried, and the party set out digging. After a short while, they found a package sealed by House Kundarak, which Fargen was able to unseal and open. To everyone’s relief, they found the book unspoiled. What they also found was a letter, sealed by House Kundarak. Fargen decided to resist the temptation to open the letter for the moment and stuffed it in his backpack. He then resealed the package.

The party then set out to circle the village on the south side, and head north-east along the lightning rail track.

After a while, the acid rain changed to bits of burning coal falling from the sky. Along the path, the party found a black monolith, which appeared to have fallen from the sky. On its backside, the thing had an eerie eye that seemed to meld itself out of the stone itself. Fargen was deeply fascinated by the thing, but the rest of the party urged him to move on.

The party then came across an old battlefield, which was not as dead as the party hoped. In irregular intervals, bodies, bones and pieces of armor would raise, and reenact an ancient fight that was doomed to never end.

Walking around the field would have been a larger detour, but that point was moot as Fargen decided to barge in and retrieve an ancient dwarven hammer, which his former owner surely would not miss. All went well until Fargen held it in his hands, which prompted an orc mercenary to stand up again and face their old enemy.

A holy arrow from Logan, another arrow from Breela, and a smash from Fargen later, the orc was disposed of, but in the meantime two more had risen. This prompted Ilvak to jump into the fray and down one of the two with a well-placed spear to the head. Unfortunately, that very orc decided to continue the fight despite having his brain splashed all over. Horror then turned to comedy when the headless orc zombie smashed his spiked chain into his archer comrade, and that one decided to retaliate by shooting his attacker. The party then quickly disposed of the duo.

While Fargen marveled at his new possession, the ancestral hammer of a dwarven clan that would shoot lightning when the clan’s name is called out, Breela found that the bow of the orc was shaped from a single, living tree branch by an orc shaman, and capable of lending extra strength to an arrow.

Ilvak, meanwhile, went against the better judgement to leave the fight and set his eyes on a spear, that held down a demon further deep into the battlefield. While the spear was able to hold down the body of the demon, his mind was still a sharp weapon, and demonic whispers creeped into Ilvak’s mind. Fighting down the voices that told him to kill Fargen cost him quite a bit of sanity. And even though the party rushed in to help and hack the demon into pieces, they could not prevent the demon from entering Ilvaks mind again, this time succeeding in forcing him to attack the dwarf. Luckily, Fargen kept a cool head and destroyed the demon before further damage was done.

The party licked their wounds, which had been mostly healed by Logan’s divine magic, and continued on their trail. They found an abandoned lightning rail station, which provided shelter for the night and some unexpected luxury, such as a working enchanted restroom.

Fargen then gave in to curiosity and opened the letter. It was written in female handwriting, in forceful, angry shapes…

“Tarn,
I can’t take this anymore. They have become suspicious. I can look like a dwarf, but I can’t drink like one. I can’t make another body disappear.
You’ll have to do without me. Don’t even try to threaten me with Inquisitor Jareth, I no longer care if he finds out what I did.
V.E.L.”